Sinker Start
Alternative name: Sinker Knee Start, Water Start - Sinker Style
Category: Basics
Level of difficulty: Level 2 (from 4)
Description
When wing foiling, there are two techniques for starting out of the water. This is about the sinker start variant on small volume wing foil boards.
Unlike on large volume boards, which support the weight of the surfer and on which you can stand up even without wind, standing up on small volume boards is a tricky business. Small boards have not enough volume to float, these boards sink under the surfer’s body weight.
This technique is used, when the board has less liters in volume than kilograms of the rider’s body weight.
The sinker start technique involves pushing a small board under water and balancing on it to stand up. Depending on the volume, the board can sink up to one meter below the water surface. Keep in mind the length of the mast, so the most important thing with this launch technique is to have sufficient water depth under the foil.
When standing up over your knees, you have to bring your center of gravity as low as possible over the center of the board so that you can stand up with wind powering your wing. The stronger the wind blows, the better. Pumping helps to bring the board to the surface.
These instructions show how the sinker start works:
Tutorial with Klaas Voget
Starting on small boards
Starting on boards with low volume